Sustaining your efforts in the gym with the right motivation.
Exercising to burn calories can be often be a challenging feat. QSMC exercise physiologist, Jenai Sutton, offers fresh perspective on goal setting.
At one point or another most of us have been guilty of the ‘earning food’ or ‘working off yesterday’s food’ mindset. Although this may seem harmless it can create a negative relationship with how we view exercise and food. Exercise should be a means to improve our health and fitness and to make us feel good, not as a form of punishment or guilt.
My guess is that you’ve heard that before, and if it hasn’t quite stuck for you yet, this blog aims to help shift your mindset.
I can just work off dessert, right? Not quite.
My first contention is that exercising to burn calories isn’t that effective. You might have heard the phrase ‘you can’t out-train a bad diet’, and this holds true. Have you ever done a hard stint on the assault bike only to realise you’ve burned 70 calories (half a Chobani yoghurt!!)?
It’s much more effective to have a balanced diet than to try to “work off” the food you have consumed. Current research supports exercise as a way of weight management, but less evidence exists for exercise for weight loss.
The right motivation.
Secondly, and probably more importantly, exercising purely to burn calories creates an unhealthy relationship between food and exercise, by viewing exercise as being a chore or a punishment. While having aesthetic goals is fine, if this is the only reason you are training it is likely your ‘motivation’ will run out. Think of the number of times you’ve started a new training regime or joined a fitness challenge purely for aesthetic reasons. Now think of how many times you’ve continued past the 12-week mark. Training for performance, improved fitness, or because it makes you feel good will create more of a long-term approach to exercise and is much more sustainable.
A Dietician’s perspective.
In a final plea to help shift your mindset we asked the OG, Sally Anderson, from Apple to Zucchini for her perspective as a Sports Dietitian. Sally says “You exercise/train/move your body, for every reason OTHER than weight loss. There are so many great benefits that come from activity you enjoy (or at least, activity you can bear!!) and having those thought patterns that can potentially cause a terrible relationship, is not a path we want to support”. Sally added “Not to say fat loss isn’t important, for those who are keen to – and the desire is valid – there are highly effective DIETARY strategies that can assist”.
Goal setting is key.
So, how do you shift from training to burn calories to training for fitness, strength, improved mobility, or just to make you feel good?
Below are some training goal examples that might help you with making sustainable change:
- Increasing your weight for a lift (squat, bench, deadlift etc.)
- Improving your time for a run, or running a further distance
- Performing the same exercise with greater ease
- Increasing the number of reps of an exercise you can do (push up, chin up etc.)
The above type of goals will ensure your training is much more enjoyable and creates a healthy relationship with exercise. When you achieve something you didn’t think you could do (hello, chin up!), the feeling you get will keep you coming back for more.
Not sure where to start? We’re here to help.
If you need help creating goals or making an exercise plan talk to one of our accredited exercise physiologists!
Jenai and our exercise physiology team are ready to assist you in planning a way to create a healthy relationship with exercise, without the calorie count.
